


A Life Sentence Ain't So Bad

by burdened_with_glorious_hunters



Series: A Heist with Markiplier Character Collection [3]
Category: A Heist With Markiplier, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: (Yancy is a criminal after all), A heist with Markiplier - Freeform, Budding Love, Cigarettes, Dark Past, Ending 10, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Past Violence, Prison life, Smoker Yancy, Soft Yancy, Yancy (A Heist With Markiplier) - Freeform, gender neutral protagonist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-24 04:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21332098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burdened_with_glorious_hunters/pseuds/burdened_with_glorious_hunters
Summary: Yancy brought the rejected cigarette to his lips and in turn moved the lighter closer to the end of the cigarette hanging between his lips. The click of the lighter igniting the only sound in the cell as he lights it. As he takes a moment to take a drag from the cigarette his warm eyes assess you, and he must see something in your expression as his lips curl in a grin as he exhales the smoke.“How is youse finding it here, doll?” He speaks at last, a charming drawl lacing his words. “The gang helping youse settle in alright?”Oh. He’s decided to hunt you down to… check up on you? The notion puzzles you as you try to decide on how to reply back to him.////A fluffy one-shot of Yancy and Gender Neutral Reader
Relationships: Yancy/Reader, Yancy/Viewer, Yancy/YN, Yancy/You
Series: A Heist with Markiplier Character Collection [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533140
Comments: 6
Kudos: 150





	A Life Sentence Ain't So Bad

Your first week embracing prison life wasn’t so bad, the other inmates had warmed up to you quickly, no doubt the help of Yancy taking a shining you despite your original confrontation with the other. Although, perhaps the past was the past as you began to see Happy Trails Penitentiary as your new home. 

So it comes as a surprise to you when at the end of your first week you find Yancy has swung around one afternoon unannounced. He’s leaning by the door to your cell, his hand moving to reach the box situated carefully in the rolled sleeves of his white t-shirt. You try to be inconspicuous as you watch him and see him riffle with the contents within the box. So you’re startled when he lifts his head and caught your gaze. 

His head is tilted faintly in question as he wordless offers you the unlit cigarette, hand outstretched with the offer resting between his fingertips. It’s an olive branch, you can see it now, but the thought of taking something more from him makes your stomach churn with unease. He’s taking enough of a chance on you to let you stay here in the first place so you don’t exactly want another debt hanging over your head. You manage to shake your head in refusal to the silent question, even more unsure why he’s there in the first place. 

At your response he brought the rejected cigarette to his lips and in turn moved the lighter closer to the end of the cigarette hanging between his lips. The click of the lighter igniting the only sound in the cell as he lights it. As he takes a moment to take a drag from the cigarette his warm eyes assess you, and he must see something in your expression as his lips curl in a grin as he exhales the smoke. 

“How is youse finding it here, doll?” He speaks at last, a charming drawl lacing his words. “The gang helping youse settle in alright?” 

_Oh_. He’s decided to hunt you down to… check up on you? The notion puzzles you as you try to decide on how to reply back to him. 

“They’ve been wonderful” You settle on saying, eyes nervously flickering to Yancy as he takes the time during your response to take another drag from his cigarette. “I’m kind-of surprised they’re so accommodating to me after all I’ve done” 

“Of course!” Yancy exclaims, smoke curling with every syllable he exhales on. “Youse is part of the family now”

He takes the cigarette out from his lips, letting it hang loose between his fingers. His expression is what you’d describe as pinched, the cut on his face pulling taunt as his feelings project onto his features. “Youse let me knows if youse is having trouble ‘round here, alright?” 

You nod in response and Yancy seems pleased with the action as he shifts on the spot, returning the cigarette to his lips. You note the way he allows himself to savour the sensation before be exhales and it gives you a moment to just look at him as he smokes by your door. The cherry red butt of his cigarette casts an attractive light over his tanned features, those doe-brown eyes all the more soft in the light reflecting off them.

Yancy is an attractive man, it hadn’t really hit you before with all the chaos of finding yourself wound up in prison, but now that you had a moment to see him alone it’s quite frankly struck you by surprise. His attention is cast down the hallway, his face turned just to the side for him to see the area better. It makes you feel more at ease that he’s not looking you head-on, the nerves which made it hard to speak with him lessening with his attention elsewhere. 

It’s only as he re-adjusts his stance against the bars does it remind you that he hasn’t moved any closer since he’d originally appeared to see you. Although maybe he’d just prefer to stick right by your cell door, perhaps to be polite or so the cigarette smoke wouldn’t overwhelm you?. In all honesty you’re not exactly sure why. Perhaps it’s an unsaid rule? You wouldn’t be surprised, for the inmates cell is the only place they can really get a sense of privacy. 

“Yancy” you call hesitantly, internally kicking yourself as he turns to look at you. 

“Yeah?” He drawls, his head is resting on iron bar behind him, the position makes it as if he were looking at you through his lashes. 

“Thanks for… for checking up on me” You manage to reply and you can feel the way heat rushes upwards. 

Yancy’s lips switch upwards, ducking his head sheepishly as he looks down towards his feet. “’Tis no problem” He murmurs around the cigaret still hanging between his lips. “Felt like I should, uh- that I should keep in touch y’know” 

You try to ignore the warmth which curls in your chest at his words, hoping that your cheeks aren’t still red from your earlier embarrassment. “Well thank you anyway” 

You watch the way Yancy nods in response, his gaze still turned to the floor as if he were purposefully avoiding your gaze. There’s a sudden silence that fills the cell, the both of you content to just hang back for a moment despite neither having anything else to add. 

“I should leave youse be” Yancy breaks the silence at last, pushing himself off the iron bars behind him. A small part of you wants to protest against him leaving, but a larger part of you doesn’t want to waste his time, you don’t exactly have anything riveting to tell him regardless. Although it doesn’t seem that Yancy particularly wants to leave either as he’s not exactly rushing things as he lingers outside your cell, hands curling against the bars as he pauses. “I hope youse has a good night, Y/N” his words are soft as he utters them, one hand rubbing the back of his neck in an action you’d describe as nervous. 

“Good night to you too, Yancy” You farewell in turn, watching as he moves to retreat back down the hall-way. 

Once you can’t hear the sound of his feet on the cement flooring you finally release the tension lining your shoulders. Throwing an arm over your face as you all but sink into the soft mattress of your prison bunk. 

///////////

The next time Yancy appears at your cell door he waltzes through the doors like he owned the place. In turn shooting down your previous theory for him sticking by the door in his last visit being due to some kind of privacy rule. 

Although just before you think he’s going to join you by sitting on your bunk he just leans casually against the cell wall. He’s not so far as he had been in his last visit but he’s still far enough away to feel as if he doesn’t particularly want to deal with you. It’s a notion which never fails to make you puzzled, no doubt reflecting on your expression as Yancy turns to look at you. 

He’s forgone the cigarettes this time, so he’s just leaning up against the wall with his his arms crossed over his chest, feet apart as he does so.

Now this impromptu visit from the other could easily be brushed off as the prison leader simply checking up on you, perhaps making sure you were getting along alright in your new home. You’re not sure if he’s sussing you out or just being friendly, with Yancy it’s hard to tell despite the man wearing his heart on his sleeve. 

“Youse is getting a nice hot shower every day, I hope. It ain’t like youse have had to deal with what youse did out there in there wide world… nothin’ at all, youse don’t ever have to worry ‘bout the water bill” Yancy breaks the silence between you, eyes sliding to look at you for a beat before he nonchalantly brings his attention back down the hall by your cell. 

This is the second time he’s come to visit you and in both times you’ve noted that he always seems to never be able to so stare at you for too long. It seems that he’d prefer to look everywhere but at you- whether that be the floor, the cement walls of your cell or most commonly down the hallway. 

The lack of eye-contact makes your stomach drop, apprehension filling you as you wonder what you’ve done to cause this shift in him. Perhaps he’s done with you, sick of you trailing him like some lost puppy ever since you’d stepped foot in the prison. Doubts swirl in your mind, howling and snarling like rabid hounds and it’s the only thing you can focus on in the emerging silence, the sound almost deafening as your thoughts spiral downwards. 

“Yancy-“

“Y/N-“ 

You both pause, equally stunned at the fact that you’ve both spoke at the same time. 

“Go on” The urging words fall from his lips. “I-I… whatever youse is gonna say will be more important” 

“no-no-no! it’s fine you should go” You refute, hoping that the other will speak first. You’re sure anything that would escape you would be nothing less than pathetic, because really you don’t even know the man so you shouldn’t really be feeling so connected to him. 

Yancy’s handsome features twisted into a faint grimace at your words. “eh! Alright, if youse insist” He sighs, eyes dropping to the floor as he rubs the back of his neck absently. “I wanted to know- no… I was wondering if youse- I uh shit” He shifts on the spot, his other hand dropping from his nervous tic. “I was just checking to see if youse know that you’re apart of the gang. My gang of course… and, I_ know_ we’ve had our differences in the past but I want youse to know that _I’ve_\- I mean we’ve got your back” 

His spiel was unprecedented but not exactly unwelcome. Warm brown eyes are finally raised to look at you and there’s an emotion you can’t quite name reflected back at you. You flash him a smile, hoping to quell whatever feeling his comment had arisen in him. It seems to work, the tension bleeding out of his frame as he all but sags against the cement wall to his back. 

“I know I can count on the gang” You reply at last, the ‘_and you_’ is left unsaid between you but the way Yancy is looking at you, well, you can guess that he’s picked up on it. 

There’s an flicker of relief that overcomes him as he continues to look at you. “I’m glad youse know that” 

Then in a blink he’s back to his usual self, the raw edge to him absent as he leans up against the wall with his his arms crossed over his chest, feet apart, as an air of nonchalance surrounds him. 

You know he’s going to leave, it’s inevitable that he’s going to do it… he’d left a similar way the last time he’d sought you out. Although he surprises you when instead of announcing his departure he decides to question you instead. “what about youse… what was it youse wanted to say to little old me?” 

“I…” With his gaze turned to you, with him letting you in to a little piece of his mind… it makes words seize in your throat. So, you don’t think you could say anything even if you wanted too. “It doesn’t matter” You settle on saying. 

There’s a flash of disappointment which overcomes his expression, but perhaps you’d imagined it as he flashes you an easy going grin in the wake of your dismissal. “All good… well, uh, if there isn’t anything else youse would like to add then I best get going… plenty of other inmates to check on as well, y’know” 

“Of course” You agree, trying to keep your own disappointment from surfacing. 

This time he doesn’t bother to hang around, he doesn’t linger as he moved out of your cell with a wave of his hand the only farewell you receive. It makes you wonder if it was the wrong call to keep yourself closed off from the other but it doesn’t matter now. It was unlikely he would have stayed with you any longer anyway… regardless, spilling your guts to a man like him would only end in disaster you’re sure of it. So why does it feel so wrong to watch his leave without telling him how you feel? 

////////////

The first time Yancy actually comes into your cell fully it’s not the way you pictured it. He’s quiet as he enters, hardly a sound as he moves closer to your bunk. 

At the time you were just laying there, your own thoughts turned elsewhere as you laid awake into the late hour of the night. It was one of the few times that you had a moment to yourself in your cell so you’re nothing less than startled when you absently look to the side to see a shadowed figure all but looming over you. Your mouth opens in a wordless scream as a hand comes down to press over your lips, preventing sound from escaping you. 

There’s a beat as you lay vulnerable to your would-be attacker and their head drops down to your ear. “It’s me” They say in turn of greeting and it’s a gruff rumble of words which takes you a moment to recognise just who the words belong too. 

He must feel the way your muscles relax as Yancy drops his hand from your mouth. You shift to look at him, his own expression shadowed by the lowlight. “Yancy what? What are you doing here so late?” You question, your words a quiet whisper in the early hours of the night

Yancy sinks to the free space on your bed, shoulders dropping as he lifts his head to look at you dejectedly. Wide-eyed you stare back, taking in the defeated slouch of the usually so put-together man. With him sitting so close you can now see black eye blossoming on his face, his lower lip split and still sluggishly bleeding. 

“Yancy!” You gasp his name in distress as your previous confusion fades to alarm, reaching out towards him without thinking. 

His eyes are guarded as your hands move to rest gently on his face, cradling the good side of him as you try to assess the extent of his injuries. It’s too late to stop you now, both of your know that as you acted on instinct. There’s a moment as you both try to figure out how you ended up with your hands holding his face like a lover would. It’s an incredibly intimate action, so you’re all but stunned that he hasn’t wrenched himself out of your hold. 

It may have been your imagination but it feels like he pushed himself a little further into your hold as those warm brown eyes flicked upwards to yours. “I’m sorry to do this to youse, especially so late… but youse is the only one I knew I could trust right now” 

“What happened?” You manage to question, heart pounding in your chest with a feeling you don’t have time to analyse. 

“A few of the new inmates cornered me” Yancy admits, lips curling in a snarl which only aggravates the split on his lip. “It was the perfect time to do it with so few of the gang around to defend me. It was able to handle the first few who cornered me but when the rest of his men decided to show up I knew I was fucked” 

You drop your hands from his face, worry and simmering anger making your stomach churn. “How did they get away with this?” 

Yancy lets out a low bark of a laugh, the sound bitter and faintly pained. “It’s late at night, Doll, and there are only a handful of guards who do the night-shift. They rarely patrol too ‘cause why would they? It’s not like any of us want to escape. So, those newbies took advantage of that and decided to get the jump on me while they had the chance” 

“So what will you do?”

Yancy turns to look at you in the low-light, his usually cheerful expression turned sour. “I’ll have to teach them a lesson” He grounds out through gritted teeth, nostrils flaring in rage. “They can’t just take the cowards way out and corner a man and jump him, that’s just petty and spineless. If they have a problem with little old me, then, they can deal with it like the criminals they are and fight me the real way” ****

“And what about now?” You prompt, 

“Now?” He repeats his anger draining as his eyes dropping to look at the sheets lining your bed in thought. “I don’t know” 

There’s a thoughtful silence that falls between the two of you. You’re nothing less than stunned that it’s_ you _that he’s sought out after having a run-in with unruly inmates, so you feel as if you owe him to make it known that his trust in you is well placed. 

“I have an idea” You comment timidly, uncertainty to his reaction making your hands curls in the sheets pooled around you. “You can stay here with me… i-if you want too that is” 

His expression is guarded once more at your words, avoiding your gaze as if he didn’t want you to see how he truly felt. The reaction makes doubts flicker through your mind, regret surging in your chest as you flounder for a way to salvage the tentative moment you’ve been sharing with the other. Your mind races as you rush to explain your reasoning. “That way you won’t be alone if they sought you out, plus, by staying here they most likely won’t think to find you here” You hurry to explain your reasoning, hoping you’re not too late to convince him. 

“Alright” Yancy spoke up into the silence and you’re not sure you’ve heard him correctly, his voice is so low as he’d spoken it. 

“Alright?” You echo the response, trying to see if you’d heard him correctly. 

Yancy nods mutely, climbing to join you more comfortably in your bunk. He’s slightly rushed as he does it, like he’s not taking the chance that you’ll change your mind and leave him to fend for himself. You don’t question him in turn, mind too focused on the fact that for some reason he’s agreed to your own olive-branch. (The fact that he joins your bed and not the empty bunk above yours is something that you don’t ponder until the next morning). 

You’re careful as you reposition yourself on the bed, trying not to watch as Yancy scoots stiffly to lay beside you. You’re wedged between the wall to one side and Yancy on your other. All is still for a moment as you just lay there in the dark, trying to keep yourself from being awkward as the realities of having Yancy sleep next to you dawns on you. 

You hear Yancy shift and suddenly feel the way his side presses against you but you wouldn’t describe the way Yancy’s side is pressed against yours as uncomfortable, no, it’s anything but uncomfortable if you’re being honest for it’s a warm solid weight as he shifts closer to you. “Thank youse” he murmurs softly, “I owe youse”

“Anytime” You reply just as softly, as if speaking any louder would disrupt the moment between you. 

Yancy is silent by your side, the only way you know he’s still there is due to the warm press of his body against yours. Only can you relax as you hear the other’s breaths even out, the tell-tale sound that he’s fallen asleep before you. Something warm and dare-you-say-it **fond **curls in your chest, making you feel content as you note the significance of Yancy falling asleep beside you. It’s a sign of trust, no doubt about it, its unspoken but there for if the other didn’t trust you he wouldn’t have sought you out let alone agreed to sleep by your side. 

Dipping out of consciousness, you feel only the warmth of Yancy pressed against you as you fall asleep.

When you next blink awake you find yourself laying alone in your prison bunk, only the faint remanence of heat in the space which Yancy had once occupied the only sign that what had ensued last night was not a dream. You can’t deny the sense of dejection that fills you at the lack of Yancy beside you, but well, it wasn’t like you really expected to wake up next to him in the first place. 

///////////

It seems that Yancy’s nightly creeping didn’t end after he got jumped by those new inmates. 

It’s one of those nights where your mind was stubbornly alert while your body begged you to sleep, causing you to lay awake when all you wanted to do was sink into the plush bedding of your bunk and drift off into oblivion. Although unlike the last time he’d came in your cell so close, you actually heard the man making his way towards you. You watch him mutely as he drops to you bed-side, hands scrabbling outwards to grip whatever he could of you. 

“Yancy?” You question, both parts nervous and worried at the behaviour of the man before. 

“Y/N” Yancy all but whines in response, the tone something you’d describes as _wrecked_. 

The sound makes you sit up in bed, sheets pooling around your waist as you do so. Your own hands reach out to grip him in turn, the dark making it so you can’t see anything. It’s nothing short of a miracle that you mange to touch him, from the feel it’s his arms and you all but tug the man forwards. He lets you hull him forwards, all but falling bonelessly into your bunk as he grips you like a life-line. His shoulders shake as he holds onto you, face buried into the junction of your shoulder and neck. The sensation of his tears into your shoulder makes your heart break as you move to hold him against you, trying to comfort the other wordlessly as you try to convey your care for him. 

“I killed them” He murmurs against your skin, lips brushing against your shoulder with every word. “I killed my parents when they were nothing but loving and supportive of me. What kind of person does that? Who kills their own parents for no god-damn reason?” He inhales shakily, words hitching as he sobs through his words. “A monster does… that’s who kills their own family, a fucking monster” 

‘_That may be so, but a monster doesn’t feel remorse_’ you want to say but the potential that Yancy will open up to you further holds you back for saying it for now. 

“Of course I was involved with petty crime before then but I guess the moment I can pin-point as my spiral downwards is the moment I’d stabbed another member of my gang because he’d become too smart for his own good. To my younger self he was a threat, climbing the ranks too quickly in a rate I could only dream of doing… so as a result, I was only 16 when I felt the sensation of another person’s life-blood coat my hands” There’s a bitter edge to his concluding words, and you can picture the way his handsome features warp into something much grittier than you’d ever witnessed in daylight. “It wouldn’t be my last” 

You reach out in the dark to grip his hands, your thumb dragging across his knuckles in a comforting gesture. There’s nothing you can really say to reassure the other, for what does one say to a man who’d murdered others in cold blood? 

“Youse shouldn’t trust me” He murmured lowly, words bitter as if he had heard your previous thoughts. “What’s to say I wouldn’t do it again?” 

“Whose to say I wouldn’t do it too?” You throw the question back at him. “Nobody in this prison is a saint, Yancy, so why should I concern myself with the crimes you’ve committed in the past?” 

“Because it could be youse I hurt” He snaps, heaving a sigh of frustration. “I don’t get why youse is so adamant to forgive me” 

“Why shouldn’t I? You haven't made any move to hurt me Yancy, you’ve been nothing but accommodating to me since we had forgiven each other” 

He’s silent at your argument, and you can feel the way his is gaze turned away from you, his face still pressed into your shoulder as he ponders your words. You don’t bother to say anything else, letting the other absorb your words as you ponder the defensive way he’d snapped at you. For why was the other so worried he’d hurt you? Trying to warn you away with bitter tones and snarled words. 

His head moves to drop to your neck, buried into the skin there and brushing against your hair with every slight movement. “I admire youse” He admits, the words muffled as he speaks against your neck. “Youse don’t back down to nothin’… I guess that’s why I- _eh- _it’s why you have my respect” 

Your heart skips in your chest at his confession. Those are heavy words coming from the king-pin, this prison leader who you’re sure must be stringing you on with the gentle side he’s shown you. It’s a testament that he likes you, him confessing his respect to bluntly as he all but bares his past to you… it shakes you to the core. 

“You’re not so bad yourself Yancy” You reply just as quiet, head turned to speak to him. 

You feel more than hear the laugh he lets out in response, his warmth breath hitting your neck with the action. “Thanks, Doll” 

It’s tranquil as you sit there, Yancy pressed against you in the late hours of the night as the pair of you just enjoy each other’s company. It’s the beginning of something new… you can feel it but just what the new beginning is, well, that’s something you’re not so sure off. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot of Yancy, let me know your thoughts below! until next time :D


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